I’ve been having boot problems for awhile. They will
go away sometimes after a freash install of windows
and a good cleaning of my case, but now it has
become much worse. I cannot boot my PC at all now
(I’d rather not do another freash install unless
neccessary). I believe the problem is my power
supply but I would rather get a second opinion before
ordering one. I don’t believe it to be a heat releated
issue because I’ve tried pointing a fan at the insides
of my case while attempting to boot, still nothing.
When I try to boot my hard drive fan (antec) shows
the temperature and my cd/dvd drives start flashing,
I can open and close them. Although my monitor
stays at a black screen (once I got to bios but I
couldn’t get to windows itself).

My powersupply came with my case and is not a
name brand as Maximum Pc recommends so I am
really suspicious of it. When I entered my bios
(before my massive boot problems) I have noticed my
3.3v (for ram I believe) has been a “warning” red
compared to the others. I think my PS has been
having trouble with my ram perhaps. When it wont
boot and I try again successfully booting, it will
blame a cpu hang due to a problem in the “hardware
monitor” and blames the 3.3v.

Before this I have always ran virus scans with Nortons
2004 every week or so and updated it daily. I have
all the critical updates for XP. I also use Sygate's free
firewall which has worked well for me so I don't
believe it is anything malicious.

I’ve tried booting from a floppy as well as my
windows cd, no luck. I can’t imagine what else it
could be besides my power supply unless my ram
went bad or something. I’ve been looking at
PcPowerAndCooling.com for a new PS. I don’t
overclock so I’ll likely get the Ultra-Quiet ATX 410 for
85$ (not counting shipping to...alaska...). I play
games alot and will likely grab another 512 of ram
soon so I figure I should have a big enough
powersupply to keep it all going. Am I correct in
blaming my power supply or is it more likely my ram?
Also would 410 be overkill for my system? Any
advice would be much appriciated. Thanks in
advance!

my specs and hardware are:

Intel 2.53 Ghz 533bus 478 pin
512 DDR Pc2700 (333) Crucial
Radeon 9500 Pro (latest drivers)
Asus P4PE/LAN-UAY 845PE Retail Motherboard
(updated chipset)
330 Watt L&C Computer Co Powersupply Model: LC-
B350ATX
Sound Blaster Audigy OEM (original drivers)
Lite-on CDRW
Lite-on DVD
Western Digital 80 GB HD w/ 8 MB Cache
19in Samsung monitor
2 rear outtake case fans (no intake atm)

I ordered all parts from newegg.com except for my
locally bought case /w powersupply and monitor. I
put it together myself a little over a year ago and it
was my first experience building a computer.

(I'm still browsing through other posts in hope of having my problem answered however I figured I'd post up my own situation as well)

I would definitly suspect the ram first.

Run Memtest86 and see what it says

Symbios

Go in and re-seat everything in the case. Memory,Cables, PCI and AGP cards. Then try again. Could be a power supply or Memory problem. Try re-seating the memory first.

<===Lefty===

Try disconnecting the culprits that suck power from the PSU & see if you can boot into the BIOS. Unplug all the IDE devices (HDD & optical drives) & see what happens. If that doesn't help, disconnect everything & try to boot with minimum hardware...just the motherboard, CPU, one stick of RAM, & video card...

http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/power_supply/default.asp

Symbios- Ok thanks, I've heard of the program
before but never did try it, I'll check it out.

lefty2053- Thanks good advice, I tried this when the
problem first started but it didn't help. However I
just did it again and it booted (yay). I'm unsure if it
will restart if I try though so I'll be keeping it in
standby until I get a new powersupply (probably next
week). It seems to be ok once booted.

jam- Thanks for the advice and the great link!